Bibles to be gifted to help people overcome typhoon trauma

ECBA Executive Secretary Natividad Pagadut said that the distribution of the Bibles should be coupled with religious formation to help them read the Bible in times of calamities.

Admin

Philippines

November 20 2013, 3:02 PM

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines plans to despatch 1,000 copies of the Bible to dioceses in the Visayas, to those affected by Typhoon Haiyan, through its Episcopal Commission for the Biblical Apostolate (ECBA).

The Tagalog Bibles are meant to help those affected to overcome trauma and regain strength in their faith.

ECBA Executive Secretary Natividad Pagadut said that the distribution of the Bibles should be coupled with religious formation to help them read the Bible in times of calamities.

“The distribution of the Bible will hopefully help them to strengthen their faith. So it is best to couple it with formation, counselling and to guide them on what to read in the Bible during this time. With this, they will be consoled and will gain hope to move on, and get up from this terrible experience,” Pagadut said.

She suggested reading lamentation Psalms where sadness and disappointments of the people to God are expressed. “It is not wrong to express sadness and disappointment to God. We should not forget our faith and still cling to Him and take note that there is hope,” she added.

The biblical apostolate also gave 100 copies of children’s Bible for children. “Sometimes, people think that this is a punishment from God, a wake-up call or something. We are too fast in making conclusions about calamities like this,” she said.

“We should outgrow that, especially if you will say that to people who were stricken with calamity. So we have to graduate from that and say that it is a natural calamity. We have no answer to that, but we can rely on the Lord and see what this can do to our life,” she added.

“For the Filipino people, our faith helps us to cling to God and to stand up again and go on,” Pagadut said.